the twilight years

Mikey and I went out this morning to chat to people. Now I want to be clear, we weren't actually seeking to share the gospel with the people we talked to. Rather what we wanted to do was to seek to understand where students and Hobartians are coming from (how they tick). What they like about Hobart, what are it's strengths and weaknesses. What are the values that people have, religious, ideology's etc.

We talked about University Culture and what it actually is. We asked people about thier religious backgrounds and spiritual experinces. I asked about the internet and the effect of online social networking. Each conversation ended with us giving one the person a card advertsing the "cool" Crossroads meeting.

Now it might be easy for the cynical to dismiss this as a waste of time. Far from it I learned a great deal about people and how to bring the gospel to bear on it. If we want to be serious about evangelism we need to serious about listening to where people are at.

"Hey my name is Mike and this is Mike. We're just wandering around chatting to people about what they think about University life and Hobart. Do you have about 5 mins for a chat?""So do you live in Hobart?""What do like about Hobart?""What do you think 'University Culture' is?"."Are you a spiritual person or would you consider yourself one?""Did you have a religious background... can you tell me a little about it.""What do you think of Christians?"What does Christianity mean to you?"

Hey Mike.. :)were you expecting people to slam you for wasting your time, or you were just being careful? :PAfter reading that it never occurred to me to think it would be a waste of time, I think it's fantastic..!Setting aside any fear, any excuses and just getting out there and talking to the people.. that is awesome.Keep it up Bro!Al